Affidavit reveals details about panga intercepted by Border Patrol

Federal authorities investigating the panga that came ashore in Rancho Palos Verdes this week filed documents Tuesday that revealed where the boat came from, how much the suspected undocumented immigrants paid for the trip and where they were headed. | PHOTOS

The affidavit, based on a series of interviews with those taken into custody Monday, was filed in support of smuggling and conspiracy charges brought against four men.

Federal authorities said the panga originated from somewhere near Tijuana, Mexico. The two dozen occupants traveled in a 27-foot, single-engine outboard, open-hull boat that was spotted before dawn Monday by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents surveilling the Abalone Cove area with a "forward-looking infra-red device." (The area is regularly used to smuggle undocumented immigrants and drugs into the U.S. from Mexico.)

The agents noticed that the boat was traveling quickly, with no lights, and was very low in the water. Suspecting a smuggling operation, they called in Homeland Security, the U.S. Coast Guard and local police.

As additional investigators arrived in the Portuguese Bend area, the smugglers' plans began to unravel quickly. At 6 a.m., Palos Verdes Estates police officers found two minivans parked near where the panga was headed. The drivers were talking on cellphones and tried to drive away as officers approached, according to the affidavit.

The men at the wheel of those vans - Maricela Salazar-Diaz and Jose De Jesus Chavez - were among the four charged with conspiring to smuggle illegal immigrants. They admitted in interviews that they intended to drive the immigrants to a Wal-Mart store in Montebello. The drivers were told they would be paid $100 per person. Chavez said he had made $1,800 a week before by doing that.

Ivan Ramirez-Leyva and Juan Francisco Becerra-Ruiz also were charged with smuggling. They were identified by passengers as the men in charge of navigating the boat. Ramirez was convicted of smuggling illegal aliens to the U.S. in a panga last year. He spent 17 months in prison before he was deported earlier this year.

The boat passengers told investigators that they met smugglers in Tijuana, and paid sums of $3,000 to $9,000 for rides to the United States. No one was sure where they boarded the panga.

The trip was tense at times because the boat pilots argued over the engine noise and twice threatened to throw one of the passengers overboard because he was "too fat."

Everyone aboard was a Mexican citizen except one man, who was Guatemalan. Some of the passengers told investigators their plans once they arrived in America.

One man wanted to move to Minnesota. Another worked as a mechanic and came to visit his daughter, who lives in Chula Vista. Passengers were headed for Riverside, Huntington Beach and Salinas to visit family and work.

Passenger Gustavo Vargas said he had just been deported from Michigan in May. He was recently in a Tijuana bar watching boxing when a man approached him and offered to take him back to the United States for $8,000.

The passengers will be repatriated to Mexico unless they are held as witnesses in the criminal trial.